As the family of collapsed Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin asks for prayers, people in Massachusetts — including the father of a high school football player who died in a game in 2010 — are sending their condolences.
John Ellsessar's son Michael, a standout high school athlete and football player from Sutton, collapsed on the field after taking a hit to the chest on Nov. 15, 2010. He was 16.
The teenager's father said Tuesday that what happened 10 minutes into the Bills-Bengals game on "Monday Night Football" was similar. In that incident, Hamlin made a tackle, stood up and then collapsed backwards on the field, suffering what the Bills later identified as cardiac arrest.
Refs immediately stopped the game, as the Bills and Bengals players stood by in shock, some in tears, as it became apparent just how serious Hamlin's condition was. Trainers and medical personnel surrounded him, giving him CPR on the field for about 10 minutes before an ambulance took the 24-year-old to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
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John Ellsessar has tragic experience with cardiac arrest — it killed both his son Michael and a younger son, Tim, to a "cardiac event" while swimming five years later.
"CARDIAC ARREST is like being unplugged- you are down and out and are loosing about 10% of your life for each minute you are unplugged- while CPR will keep the blood pumping - it is the AED that will deliver the shock to restart your heart and basically plug you back in… where you hopefully reboot and survive. Time will tell as to the state of recovery," Ellsessar said in a Facebook post Tuesday.
Ellsessar added, "Me and my family are praying for the Hamlin family and all affected by this traumatic event."
Ellsessar vividly remembers the call he got from Michael's football coach on Nov. 15, 2010, telling him they needed to get to a hospital as quickly as possible.
"When we got there, he was already gone, "Ellsessar told NBC10 Boston later Tuesday. "Every parent's worst nightmare."
When Ellsessar was watching the game Monday night and saw Hamlin collapse, he knew what had happened.
"As soon as he collapsed, he went down as if he was unplugged. We knew right away he was in cardiac arrest," he said. "My wife and I were saying, 'Get that AED! Get the AED as quick as you can!'"
Ellsessar and his wife, Luann, helped pass Michael's Law in 2012, improving medical emergency response plans in schools. Luann Ellsessar teaches CPR.
"He was extremely close to death. And he was saved last night," John Ellsessar said of Hamlin. "Anytime you use an AED, you're bringing someone back to life."
Many more in Massachusetts were sending prayers as well, including many on the New England Patriots, the Boston Marathon's organizers and Gov. Charlie Baker, who is set to lead the NCAA later this year.
Hamlin's family on Tuesday had released a statement offering "our sincere gratitude for the love and support shown to Damar during this challenging time," and asking, "Please keep Damar in your prayers."
The statement said the family would offer updates when they are available.
While the cause of Hamlin's cardiac arrest has yet to be revealed, Dr. Christopher Madias, a cardiologist and the director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at Tufts Medical Center, said it could be commotio cordis, "a blunt blow to the chest wall overlying the heart that initiates sudden cardiac arrest."
While he's not treating Hamlin, Madias said the fact that the Bills report Hamlin's heartbeat was restored on the field is encouraging.
"Recognition he's in cardiac arrest, initiation of early, effective CPR and early defibrillation is really critical in these scenarios to give him the best chance at survival," he said.
The Patriots are scheduled to play the Bills on Sunday, but it's unclear at this point how that game may be affected.
